Why did the British government not
investigate the Rendlesham Forest UFO case in any depth?
This is the briefing paper prepared for
Lord David Trefgarne, a British government defence minister,
when he had a private, off-the-record meeting in 1985 October
with Lord Peter Hill-Norton, a former Chief of the Defence
Staff. It explains why the British government never
investigated the Rendlesham Forest case in any depth.
Lord Trefgarne noted that Col Halt in his
memo to the MoD did not recommend further investigation.
“Our own view also was that no additional action was
required,” said Trefgarne. “We believe that the
fact that Col. Halt did not report these occurrences to MoD for
almost two weeks after the event, together with the relatively
low-key manner in which he handled the matter, are indicative
of the degree of importance in defence terms which should be
attached to the incident.”
The two-page paper was among documents
found in the Ministry of Defence UFO files released at The
National Archives in 2008 May. It is pages 115 and 116 of file DEFE 24/1925. Click on each page below for an enlargement
(PDF format).
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The meeting arose after correspondence
between Lord Hill-Norton and Lord Trefgarne. A letter from
Hill-Norton dated 1985 July 26 in which he lists a number of
questions he wished to explore can be seen on pages
208–210 in file DEFE 24/1925. Further
copies of the same letter can be found on pages 259–261
and 280–282 of file DEFE 31/174.
Knowing of Hill-Norton’s reputation
as an avid UFO believer and an outspoken critic of the
MoD’s “no defence significance” line, Lord
Trefgarne wrote “Oh, dear” at the top of the
letter.
Hill-Norton was clearly not persuaded, and
returned to the attack in an aggressive correspondence with the
MoD in 2001, released in 2007 under
the Freedom of Information Act.
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